its bollocks thought up by Gove to make Grammars look good and comps look bad but it backfired so he'll move the goalposts before the league tables come out in Januaryand its all hogwash anyway because he's changing the curriculum so much and so fast that the next few years' results will not be inter comparablewhich is a right bugger for our childrennot that he cares as his are teeny and will go private

It's morally abhorrent. It devalues subjects like Art, Drama and Music - subjects which enrich and add value to children's lives. Schools shouldn't be merely exam factories, which is what Gove wants them to be. I'm a secondary English teacher BTW.

Seems very sensible to me, though I am not sure what is so novel about it.

We had to take, double maths, double English, one foreign language, one science and one of either history or geography, at my school twenty years ago. That still left two/ three free choices so you could pick art etc if you wished to ( I chose economics, German, and geology).

Some children do better with coursework, or during practical assessments and some are better in an exam environment. The current system uses all of those things and so everyone has a fair chance then imo.

I think the English Bac is a good idea in principle. GCSEs were designed for a different era when most people left school at 16 and there was no internet cheating. Our children will be at school until 18

Our children need a rigorous challenge to compete with the best from India, Singapore and China. We have to up our gain.

It would be better for less able children to take the English Bac when they are ready, prehaps in the sixth form alongside a vocational qualification. Recongising that someone needs a little longer to reach an academic level is not setting up for failure. The lower grades of GCSE aren't worth the paper they are written on. It is the present GCSE system that sets up lower ablity children for failure as an E in English is worthless.

There seem to be a lot of left wing parents here just hating reform because of who is making it. You cant go through life telling everyone they have passed, when 1/5 of children need remedial help in Maths and English as soon as they get a job. The facts are that for the past decade our education system has failed our country. The only way it will recover is by being honest and testing children properly. Of course some of them wont get a C, that's because they cant read and write. On what planet does lying to them help?

This is a great idea and should help ALL of society. Lets also remember all the subjects will not be compulsory and kids can still do drama, RE, Arts etc

There is no point in giving a certificate to everyone. Your car mechanic will need to have basic maths and be literate. He will have to have some understanding of science to service modern cars.

No one is saying that there should not be vocational courses and there is no reason why some should not do their BTEC in car repairs alongside their EBAC.

I have to admit I am not sure why a humanity and a foreign language has been included in the EBAC. I suppose it about making a person tolerant and open minded. Modern languages, geography and history do give some insight into other cultures. I would prefer it if someone could have a non european modern language in their EBAC or prehaps religous education as a humanity.

"WTF is the point of talking about India, Singapore and China - do you go there to get your car mended, your hair cut or your drains unblocked?"

Immigrants certainly come to the UK and apply for British jobs. There are lots of Polish hair dressers, car mechanics and plumbers.

If it's the new exams, then my main concern is the total lack of alternative. It's an EBC in English or nothing. Where does that leave kids not capable of passing the new exam? There is no way that anyone should accept the concept of children leaving school with no qualifications in anything at all.

I teach Performing Arts at both BTEC and GCSE. The Level 2 BTEC involves about 5 times as much work as the GCSE, yet the general public view a GCSE A grade as far more valuable than a BTEC Distinction.

It's a sensible option set for academic dc, & certainly I'd discourage my own kids from binning MFL or Humanities altogether before 16, but it doesn't merit further privileging academic students with a special badge.

Fortunately, about the only thing that I have in common with Gove is that my dc are young, so it is to be hoped that the poisonous little twerp is long out of office & ruining something other than education by the time they start secondary.

ReallytiredI have clients who earn around £40k a year without being able to read or write other than their own name.You have very little understanding of 'trades'and Poles coming here is NOT what you implied in your earlier post about competing on an international level.

Manicurists and hairdressers do not need an EBAC in any form - they just need to be able to manicure while making small talk with people who spend in a day what they earn in a month.

fully agree with Talkin - Eviltwins I just wish that the general public would get their heads out of the DM and MN and realise that BTECs are not the easy option!

My year 11 group who began the BTEC last year are completing this whilst I am having to race them through the GCSE as SLT are nervous in other words think BTEC will fail an Ofsted/league tables despite the BTEC being their decision in the first place and they are laughing at the knowledge required for GCSE compared to the amount of work they are doing for the BTEC.

In fact, the first lesson in September I gave them the summers paper without any warning and told them to complete it - I have ended up telling them to 'dumb down' their answers on the paper as they were bringing in so many factors in the extended writing questions that the marking scheme just didn't envisage.

I will openly admit that pass level, whilst still requiring a lot of coursework to complete is not that difficult; to achieve Merit or higher though does require a lot of work, analysis, evaluation and independent research that goes far beyond the norms of GCSE A* standard.

John Cridland, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, said on 19th November 2012 that "employers were being forced to provide remedial tuition in the three-Rs to as many as one-in-five new recruits  including those with good GCSE grades  because pupils have been failed by the system.

This article says that the one in five figure refers to one employer needing to offer remedial numeracy training.

The problem with maths GCSE is that it is not a numeracy qualification. A good dose of algebra, an ability to interpret statistics, a knowledge of geometry and the lack of numeracy skills can be compensated for in order to gain a pass. Gove has so far dragged his heels over introducing the double maths GCSE, one on the 'basics' that employers want and one on the more abstract stuff, even though it was recommended by the Tory commissioned Carol Vorderman Maths report, possibly because the twin pair pilot was started by Labour.

There was also a functional maths qualification separate to GCSE which would have been ideal which was piloted about 5 years ago, but was scrapped the year it was supposed to become compulsory, (by Labour) the suspicion being because too many students failed it. Although functional maths is now an element of maths GCSE, as mentioned above, failure in those questions can be compensated for by good knowledge in other areas and a C still gained.

I'll agree that maths GCSE is not fit for purpose - but I am not convinced that Gove's plans are going to serve the bottom end well (especially if he, as planned, scraps tiered exam papers).

"Our children need a rigorous challenge to compete with the best from India, Singapore and China. We have to up our gain".

Actually I totally agree with ReallyTired. I am currently living abroad and my children are at school with children from Singapore, India and China. Their attitude to school and learning is very different to what you see in the UK now. You may ask what this has to do with the average job in the UK but it will have a lot to do with it in the future. If their workforces become more attractive to companies e.g. better educated workforce at lower costs than the UK then they will outsource or set up there. I worked in HR, responsible for manpower, in the UK and throughout Asia and I can tell you that companies want the brightest staff at the lowest cost. Just try and get a job in IT now in London. You would be really hard pushed to get an entry level position as a Graduate as there are thousands of other nationalities willing to do those jobs for half the money. It really, really scares me that other nationalities are prepared to put their everything into their kids education and we as a nation seem to be pussyfooting around making sure no ones feelings are hurt. We will be returning to the UK in 2 years and I personally will be looking for an independent school who is going to push my child academically. Once upon a time you would go for a job and there would be a couple of hundred other Brits going after it. In the future (even now) that job you want will have people all over the world applying for it.